Conventionally, a vehicle front body structure comprises longitudinal beams joined together by transversal beams, so as to define an engine room.
The longitudinal beams are designed so as to absorb impact energy during a frontal impact or a frontal impact with partial overlap, for example with a moderate overlap, of as low as 40%, i.e. such that only 40% of the vehicle front impacts an obstacle.
The vehicle front body structure generally further comprises longitudinal reinforcing elements extending above the front wheel casings, also called “shotgun” elements, designed to absorb impact energy during a frontal or oblique impact with little overlap, for example with less than 30% overlap.
In order to improve energy absorption, it was proposed to join longitudinal beams to the reinforcing elements, so that the longitudinal beams and the reinforcing elements may cooperate to absorb energy.
However, attaching the reinforcing elements to longitudinal beams results in a degraded energy absorption by the longitudinal beams, owing to the fact that this attachment impairs the ability of the longitudinal beams to deform. Therefore, even if the energy absorption capabilities of the vehicle front body structure during a frontal or oblique impact with little overlap may be improved, the energy absorption capabilities during a frontal impact with no or with moderate overlap are degraded.